Buy it... on the Varèse Sarabande Club CD only if you're an Elmer Bernstein collector, a devoted fan of the film, or a worshipper of Gozer the Gozerian.

Avoid it... on the score-only albums if you're among most mainstream listeners who want only the songs (in which case the 2006 Arista re-release is for you).

Bernstein

Ghostbusters: (Elmer Bernstein) Among the triumphs of director Ivan Reitman is the undeniably funny Ghostbusters, arguably the best that Harold Ramis and SNL alums Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray ever put to screen. From its unforgettable logo to its title song by Ray Parker Jr., Ghostbusters would outrun Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom at the box office in 1984, reaching earnings of over $200 million after initial studio panic over its bloated $32 million budget. For fans of paranormal comedies, Ghostbusters can't go wrong, with a plotline of 1980's New York serving as a focal point for the return of supernatural demons from another dimension. The city relies on a group of nerdy pseudo-scientists to save them from their chosen destruction at the hands of Zuul, Gozer the Gozerian, and, of course, the giant Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man (though the suggestion of J. Edgar Hoover as the form of the destructor must have been awfully tempting, too). Everyone wanted a piece of the Ghostbusters pie, and aside from the sequel a few years later (still successful, but not astronomically so), the rights, the logo, and the title song were all embroiled in legal wrangling for a decade after the initial film's release. One aspect of the film that slipped by quietly without much notice was its underscore, and Reitman didn't have to call to a parallel dimension to find a composer. The comedy master of the early 1980's, Elmer Bernstein had already collaborated with Reitman half a dozen times, and he was assigned to Ghostbusters before any of the actors had been signed. Given his effectiveness in similar projects of the era and genre, the choice was never questioned, but as was an emerging case with many films of the 1980's, portions of the score were dumped in favor of pop songs. Ghostbusters went from being a score-only affair in Bernstein's original assignment to a film famous for its chart-topping songs and subsequent song album. With an Academy Award nomination for the title song and gold status for the pop album, Bernstein's score faded away into obscurity.

Typically, such treatment of effective music from a veteran composer is reason for mutiny from film score collectors. But with Ghostbusters, despite the status of Bernstein, a rare situation occurred where the film was, in the end, better served with the songs in various places than it would have been with strictly the score. Bernstein disagreed, of course, conceding only that the title song by Parker was warranted. And indeed, there were a few questionable song usages in the film, especially in the latter half. The use of Mick Smiley's lethargic "Magic" in the scene during which the ghosts escape the protection grid and fly over New York to Gozer's arrival seems out of place to this day, completely sucking the sequence dry of its power and sense of impending doom. Interestingly, in cues when we hear solid usage of songs, such as "Cleanin' Up the Town" at the outset and "Savin' the Day" during the heroes' triumphs, Bernstein's score called for a rock version of his quirky piano-based title theme. In fact, this disco-rock version was recorded for several scenes, but often became the casualty of song placements in the film. While Bernstein was understandably frustrated with this loss, his disco-inspired music really, in all honesty, wasn't as cool as the songs. The most thankful lifting of his music was during the opening title (after the first nasty little incident in the library), during which a rather tepid, instrumentally sparse performance of Bernstein's title theme was replaced with a preview of Parker's song. In almost every case, his score doesn't succeed when he attempted to play it cool, instead playing best in the film when either extending the comedy through his title theme or providing straight horror crescendos later in the story. The structure of the title theme, though absolutely perfect for the nerdy element of the story, doesn't translate well into large-scale performances. After all was said and done, Bernstein would declare himself done with the comedy genre by the time the sequel was proposed, and opted out of the franchise.

As usual with Bernstein, the primary theme is piano-based, and it relies on the dexterity of its light, bouncing rhythm to set a fluffy mood; the theme is well adapted throughout the score, including the impatient rendition in "Stairwell." Only once does Bernstein start to let the brass section and an electric guitar rip with this theme (in the rejected "We Got One!" cue, the first call to action scene), and seeing that it was rejected early in the process, it's no surprise that Bernstein had little direction in the "coolness" category for Ghostbusters. In the end, his title theme is quite memorable, but in a strictly small-scale fashion of lovability. The same could be said of Bernstein's theme for the Sigourney Weaver character, playing to swaying romance from yesteryear and providing some elegance to separate her even further in character from Bill Murray. Bernstein does let the orchestra rip with his music for Zuul and Gozer. The build-up to the coming of the destructor has some outstanding cues, including "The Gatekeeper," in which Bernstein hails the arrival of Gozer with a full blown organ-backed fanfare of religious variety. Despite all these strengths, the aspect of the Ghostbusters that will bring a smile to your face often involves the smaller aspects of the score that twinkle in the background. It's an intelligent work, with Bernstein making use of both the cello and piano to match their roles in the film. Weaver's character is a cellist, so the presentations of her theme in the first half of the film are often announced by a cello performance. Likewise, Murray says, upon investigating Weaver's apartment, that ghosts hate the alternating of adjacent keys on a piano's highest ranges (and "torments" the ghosts by doing it on screen), and Bernstein toys with quick spurts of high piano notes in moments of relative calm or suspense throughout the score thereafter. Also, the ondes martenot, the French keyboard variation of the theremin and very early synthesizer technology, is used in Ghostbusters with great effect. While performed less here than in its more glorious The Black Cauldron by Bernstein at roughly the same time, there's no doubt that the eerie sounds of the ondes martenot are a perfect fit for the light-hearted world of ghosts.

	2006 Arista: Only $9.99

On album, as mentioned before, Bernstein's score has been largely neglected. After stuffing the film with its own artists' songs, Arista released an LP in 1984 that featured nearly all the songs in the film, as well as two Bernstein cues and an instrumental version of the title song. Bernstein had originally recorded four cues specifically for the commercial album, through two of them really didn't have much in common with the score and were appropriately dropped. The remaining two feature performances that don't really capture the spirit of the score either, and it's no wonder these two pieces didn't inspire calls for a score-only release by the public. A CD version of the LP (still 37 minutes in length with 6:30 of score) was released by Arista in 1990. Film score fans, though, wouldn't let this situation hold forever. In 1998, they produced a badly titled bootleg of somewhat inferior sound, including only cues that made it into the film. In 2006, however, both the songs and score would get due treatment. Arista (with Sony) re-released the song album with remastered sound and two additional tracks: one song from the film that was missing from the previous edition and a somewhat gutless remix of the Parker title song. A full score release would highlight Varèse Sarabande's initial 2006 Club CD releases, with an outstanding treatment of all of Bernstein's material for the film, whether it appeared in the movie or not. This Club CD (readily available in a 3,000-copy pressing) tops off Varèse Sarabande's strong offerings of Bernstein music from the era, and includes the cues that were replaced by songs in the film, as well as the two rejected suites of music for the commercial album. The snazzier alternate for "We Got One!" is a fantastic bonus. Even in its best presentation, though, Bernstein fans are well aware that his music from this era is often dull or muffled compared to its contemporaries, and Ghostbusters is rather flat in sound quality even in its best form. Still, the Varèse Sarabande is the best offering of Ghostbusters that we could reasonably expect, completely negating the bootleg. One unfortunate result of the fact that the songs worked so well in the film is a possible desire to have a couple of the songs from the Arista album (including the Parker title, of course) appended to the score. It wasn't feasible for Varèse Sarabande, but that shouldn't stop ultimate fans of the film (or Gozer worshippers) from combining an hour of score with a few of the songs on their own playlists.   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Music as Heard in the Film: *****
1990 Arista Song Compilation: **
1998 Score Bootleg: **
2006 Arista/Legacy Song Compilation: ***
2006 Varèse Sarabande Club CD: ****
Overall: ****

Bias Check:

For Elmer Bernstein reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.33 (in 18 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.19 (in 9,458 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.